This past weekend, I participated in the first ever Missouri Hope Disaster Exercise. I was so glad that I participated. It was an amazing experience to see everyone working together to accomplish the mission. There were 3 lanes set up: Simulation, Bridge 103 (teams course)/ Fire Tower (Climbing Structure), and Incident Command Post. I enjoyed working with others as a follower/do’er this weekend, instead of leading (although I helped the Incident Commander out with setting up the ICP during our Simulation Lane on Friday and our ICP Lane on Saturday. View Media Here.

Today is the day. The day my cousin’s dad learns his fate. He has had a struggle with cancer for over 20 years now. He got diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and the doctors only gave him ~10 years to live. That was 20 years ago. in 2010, he got diagnosed again with cancer. He went through many treatments and got his last treatment in June 2011. Recently, he got some bad news during a checkup. Doctors noticed a tumor growing in his brain, and they are concerned it’s growing into the inoperable area of his brain. Please pray for Mike today. He and his family need all your prayers. Thank You!

Also, I’ve made up a Facebook Cover of all the people who I wear my wristbands for. I’m always thinking about them.

Eli Horn was a 7 year old boy fighting for his life that lived right here in Nevada. I didn’t know that he lived here until it was too late. I was following Eli since right around the beginning of January, after I saw something about him. Anyway, his life was cut too short on Wednesday morning (1/18/12 at 5:30 ET), when he died in his hospital room in NYC. Eli was fighting a deadly childhood cancer called Neuroblastoma, which he lost. He has a visitation tomorrow at Cornerstone over in Ames, followed by a funeral on Monday. Check out his blog and also his Facebook page. Feel free to also tweet them @elihorn with the hashtag #ElisArmy. Let’s try to trend #ElisArmy on Monday in his honor, because he was such an amazing boy.